Snipers all over the place

By the time Ali reached the bank, the news of a heist had already been leaked to the public and a lot of news reporters and people had been gathered there. The police was blocking the scene as usual, but anyone could see it was a headache even for them.

Due to all this crowd Juliet had to stop his car a little away from traffic, so it was hard to hear anything anyone spoke as everything just sounded like some mixed radio chatter.

Ali looked around and found Sophia standing near a car a little distance from him. Talking with a group of other police officers and some casually dressed other officials. Her face looked like she was angry and wanted to punch something, so he just chose to stay away from her eyes.

"Delta, get me all the info you can." Ali tapped his finger on the window and soon the thin and slim looking guard left his post and started walking into the crowd.

Ali's eyes wandered on the building of the bank for a few seconds and then at the pathways connecting to this road.

He had heard from Charlie that dear ol Kevin, who refused to go to the hospital first, was on his way there now, albeit in an ambulance this time. He was hit hard by a car and from the looks of it, broke his leg in the hard collision.

Ali just gave the pat of praise and told them to keep an eye on him at all times. While also telling them that if some hot doctor or nurse is treating the guy, they are to send him her details.

Obviously this weird ass order caused Juliet to chuckle and Emily to glare at him and shook her head disapprovingly.

Soon Delta came back and started telling him all the details he learned.

From what he heard from ghost before and now from Delta, Ali could summarize that 4 of the heist members had already ran away with what they looted before the police arrived, not willing to take any risks of being captured. But one man who thought otherwise stayed and kept threatening everyone for their money.

Result, by the time he wanted to leave, after gathering the extra jewelry from the customers and cash from the staff, the police was already upon him.

The poor him was caught red handed with a large bag and could only turn around and run back into the building.

Though no one was hurt in this heist till now, nothing could be said for the future. Since it was just a small branch of a local bank, not many people were present in the building, and all of them were shoved into a room together and locked.

There was only one large entrance at the front which the police were blocking with large fanfare.

Currently they were still discussing whether to just rush inside and kill the guy, or keep negotiating with a newbie who was losing his shit inside the bank.

Though the threat level of this one man was low, but the fact that the cornered lamb could just go insane and start killing everybody inside was a possibility, so the hesitation was there.

"Fuck."

As soon as Ali heard everything, he could just grab his forehead and curse out loud.

He can already imagine what the next scene gonna be.

'In situations like these, the goons always pick either the heroine or someone related to heroine, to threaten everyone.'

Damn it.

"Sia's inside too." Ali sighed and looked at the building in front of him with some displeasure. Though Hotel was inside and there was a chance that she could handle this guy herself, but Ali doubted luck would be that lucky.

'System, how many points do I have?'

[VP = 2380]

[EP = 5300]

'I hate it.'

"Which one of you is a sniper?" Ali asked getting out of his car, and looking at his group of guards.

Hearing his question, Alpha and Juliet came forward in response. Ali looked around and pointed at the two big buildings in the hindsight.

"Find a suitable place, take positions. The moment you spot this guy, you shoot him down."

"But, the guns_?" Hearing his orders, Juliet frowned and asked, but was interrupted as Ali took the car keys from her hand and walked back towards the trunk.

'System, buy two suitable guns for them… With all their fancy equipment attached, yes.'

[300 points deducted.]

'Mind throwing one back case for a cover to hide them too.'

[That's how they come.]

'Perfect.'

"Here, take one, and get to work. If you miss and hit someone else, I'll shoot you instead." Ali said and backed away. As Juliet and Alpha just kept staring at the opened trunk and the slim boxes lying there.

'Does he always carry guns like this with him?'

'Rich people really do have everything.'

Both people had different thoughts as they opened a box and saw what was inside. But after hearing Ali's next words, they both got out of their stupor and left the place with a long black case in their hands.

"Did you keep a gun in our trunk? You know how big a commotion it could cause if someone found some random weapons in your car, right?"

Ali, who just turned around, found Emily standing in front of him, disbelief still written all over her face as she looked at the empty trunk and then at the two guards walking away, before she started firing a barrage of questions at his face.

It was quite a commotion when Ali was arrested two weeks ago, and if not for the weird phenomenon of darkness descending, it would've been much harder to bury the news and save his reputation, yet this guy instead of being civil, is being even more criminally weird these days.

"And where'd you even get them huh? Is it that Rangaa guy? I'm calling Madam,..."

"Em," Ali said, grabbing her head and interrupting her train of wild questions. "I'll tell you about it later, okay." He said as he leaned his head on hers, before giving a light peck on forehead and turned back.

"Stay here." He said to the guards and left the place.

Emily just stood there frozen for a few seconds, before her hands reached to her forehead, where she could still feel a little heat remaining. Not understanding what just happened.

Ali, who walked a few steps away thinking what he should do next, halted in his steps, and frowned. He looked back and saw Emily's back and recalled the previous scene. 'Did I just _'

—Bang

Ali, who was busy in thoughts recalling what he did just now, was shaken as a sudden gunshot echoed in the air, bringing him back to reality.

He shook his head and glanced back towards the bank, where he could see the police moving around in hurry, while a line of hostages could be seen standing behind a glass wall.

Focusing all his attention forward, instantly the effect of his passive bloomed, and his gaze became clear and unobstructed.

After experimenting with this title in the past couple of days Ali had a general grasp of what he could do through 'stable mind'. Be it blocking out random thoughts and distractions during the spars, playing games and controlling even the slightest of his movements more efficiently, or just seeing, hearing, reading or membering better than many humans can do.

Though being in this focused state for long times did hurt his brain and gave him a headache later on, but he was quite satisfied with these effects.

He even invested a hundred points in the system and increased his intelligence by 1, trying to see if doing so can increase his focus or decrease his headache.

For now, he could maintain this focused state for 45 seconds at best, any longer and he'd have to hold his head and lie down for a couple of hours to calm his headache.

"Sia" Ali muttered as he saw a chubby little girl, no older than five years, dressed in a military pants and gray t-shirt standing there, in the middle of the line of other hostages.

Ali could see a masked man walking behind them with a small pistol and a knife in hand.

'I knew it would happen.' He said coldly and looked at the building in front of him. He ran straight, jumping over a car, using it to grab the branch from a nearby tree and then swinging through that to the high perimeter wall.

Standing there, he looked back for a second as he heard the loud sound of a microphone before jumping down and rushing ahead.

"Don't try to be smart or I'll kill everyone inside. There's a big gas cylinder inside too, so don't even think of running inside and catching me, or I'll shoot it and blast everyone.

I don't want to hurt anyone. I haven't even touched a single hair of these guys, so just let me go and I won't do anything.

I just need a little money, that's all. So don't force me."

The masked man, surrounded and cornered, knowing there was no way out, could only curse and come out to make some deal. Just from his tone and hesitating voice, it was clear the man had no idea of what he wanted or was doing at this point, which only made him more dangerous than ever.

Ali ignored the words and kept rushing through the floors one by one. Until he reached the rooftop, which was _ locked.

"Ah for fuck sake." He cursed and looked around hurriedly. Until he saw a metal rod placed in a corner.

Getting to the rooftop Ali closed the door and breathed heavily.

"Alpha, got any eyes?"

"Negative. I'm changing positions."

"Juliet?"

"See him, but not a clear shot. Some auntie is blocking my sight."

"Fuck it." Ali said, and spent another 150 points on another gun and looked ahead.

"Phew, nothing big, no big deal. I can do it. Of course I can." he muttered to himself, looking through the scope, moving the aim to the masked man's figure.

"Should I kill him? But then the next matters might be troublesome.

Argh fuck it. Imma just shoot." He said and looked at the guy's head.

"Hey, system, I'm not gonna miss, right?"

[You don't have gun proficiency or high mastery to guarantee a success in one hit shot. There's a 68% chance you would fail despite the mind stability.]

"Fuck, buy me the knowledge till it's good enough."

[1000 points deducted. Firearms proficiency increased to Advanced level.]

"Damn that's expensive." Ali said and sighed before the brilliance of knowledge poured into his brain.

"Just like magic," Ali said with a deep breath and felt his mind calm down again and all the unfamiliarity and hesitation while holding the gun disappeared instantly.

— phewoon

A whistling sound of a bullet passing through cutting the air came to his ears, as his shoulder felt the sting of shock from recoil.

After firing the gun he just laid back on the rooftop and rested there, the backlash for focused state and sudden knowledge dump came together and a headache like someone hit a hammer onto his nerves came to his brain.

"I shouldn't do this again." He said, learning another thing about his passive and system shopping.

####

Points data sheet

The last I mentioned he had 1450 VP and 350 LP, after that making many little troubles for Kevin and pulling another villain as Meher's licking dog out, gave him another 700 points, and around 150 luck.]

[Total remaining VP = 1850]

[Total remaining LP = 500]